When I was a kid I was already fascinated with data. I would leaf through the yellow pages and wonder how it helped people connect. I lived that dream and now it's no longer just about connecting, but searching and getting found. This blog is about my work as a "stitcher". There's so much we could do here at home and I am just plain happy whenever I manage to stitch people together.(Oh, BTW everything here is my personal opinion.)

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

When my Mom and I were exporting furniture back in the late 90s one of the things that I had a difficult time in was researching the right market. The furniture we were producing served a niche market and the only way to get information was to go to the Bureau of Export Trade Promotion library. It would take me a whole day just to get the right data and the info wasn't usually updated. It was hard and when you are a start-up company it's even harder when your target market is out of your reach.

When my Mom and I gave up on our export business, my interest on it stayed on. I eventually found work that allowed me to help exporters and I've been on a look-out for things that would be interesting. I recently found out about Google's Global Market Finder. The research tool provides exporters data on possible markets that they can tap for their products. Here's an example of a search I did for rattan specifically for the Americas market: